Augustin To Take Off After Two Years At Texas

This will be an ongoing list of underclassmen who have declared for the NBA draft (with some comments provided by ESPN.com) and are either foregoing their college eligibility by signing with an agent or are very likely to stay in the draft. Underclassmen have until April 27 to declare for the June 26 draft. Those who did not hire an agent have until June 16 to withdraw their name from the draft.

D.J. Augustin, Texas (Sophomore), PG – Projection: Lottery
Recap: All-American, won Bob Cousy Award for top point guard, led team with averages of 19.2 points and 5.8 assists and 118 3-pointers.

Keith Brumbaugh, Hillsborough Community College, SF – Projection: Late first to early second
Recap: Top scorer in the junior college level, averaging 36.5 points to go with 10 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 4.8 steals.

Chris Douglas-Roberts, Memphis (Junior), SG – Projection: Late first to early second
Recap: All-American, NCAA all-tournament team, Conference USA player of the year, averaged a team-high 18.1 points and 41.3 percent on 3-pointers and helped Memphis win 38 games, a record for most wins in a season.

Derrick Rose, Memphis (Freshman), PG – Projection: Top 2
Recap: Third-team All-American, averaged 20.8 points, 6.5 rebounds and 6.0 assists in six games in the NCAA Tournament and helped Memphis win 38 games, a record for most wins in a season.
Pros: Best pure point guard in the draft.

Michael Beasley, Kansas State (Freshman), PF – Projection: Top 2
Recap: All-American, Big 12 Player of the Year and third freshman in NCAA history to lead the nation in rebounds at 12.4 per game to go with 26.2 points a contest.
Pros: Agile power forward who is exceptionally versatile, able to power his way inside or step out to the perimeter, shooting 37 percent from beyond the arc.

O.J. Mayo, USC (Freshman), SG – Projection: Top 10
Recap: Averaged a team-high 20.7 points and set freshman school records for scoring average, points in a season (684) and 3-pointers (88).
Pros:Great scorer.

Eric Gordon, Indiana (Freshman), SG – Projection: Top 10
Recap: Third-team All-American led the Big Ten in scoring (20.9 points), set school and Big Ten freshman scoring records with 669 points and won the conference’s freshman player of the year award.
Pros: Nifty moves and 3-point shooting.
Similarities: A bigger, better version of Ben Gordon.

Jerryd Bayless, Arizona (Freshman), PG – Projection: Top 10
Recap: Averaged a team-high 19.7 points and set a school record for most points in a three-game span with 103 points.
Pros: Combination of elite athleticism, shooting ability and quickness
Similarities: Gilbert Arenas

13 responses to “Augustin To Take Off After Two Years At Texas”

I was pretty high on Eric Gordon coming into the season, and I suppose he lived up to my expectations. Entering the draft is the smart move for him. He’s already a projected top 10 pick, and going back to Indiana shows little promise of success. I might have said differently if Kelvin Sampson wasn’t given the boot.

Bayless is a stud. In my opinion, one of the top 5 or so point guards in the nation this past year. His entering in the draft opens the point guard slot for incoming freshman Brandon Jennings. Watch out for Jennings. He’s gonna turn some heads next season

Anyways, this is shaping up to be a pretty decent draft class. It’s probably not 2003 status, but I see some impact players in the field.

One thing I want to say, I think people are kinda sleeping on O.J. Mayo–if that’s even possible. After all the hype, I feel people were disappointed by his short stint at USC, and because of it he’s fallen to back end of the top 10 in some mock boards. My guts says Mayo’s game translates a lot better in the NBA than in college, and that he can be an all-star in the league. Possibly even a more athletic version of of Brandon Roy, if he ups his basketball IQ.

I just want to clarify that I wasn’t calling out African names but rather black names, which there is a difference. The difference is those Asian names aren’t originally English but rather a direct translation from their original languages, and I obviously feel the same way for African names. I don’t know what hippie names are, but it’s pretty obvious if something’s a dictionary (existing) word or not.

I read on ESPN.com yesterday that the 2007 draft could shape to be among the best ever, and your mention of the 2003 draft class has me thinking that Oden + Durant is far less than the 2003 class partly because two players can’t really make up an entire draft, no matter how good they turn out to be.

On that note, it’s amazing how many freshman are declaring. I assume this would be a record.

O.J. Mayo. Wasn’t he the probable number one pick if he went straight out of high school? I was thinking who he could be compared to, and I like his similarity to Brandon Roy. I hope the Sonics could grab Michael Beasley though. Oh, the mock picks and the millions of possibilities have started.

It might be a little unfair to compare any draft class to the one of 2003, which might only be behind the 1984 class that had Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley and Stockton.

It’s a little too early to judge the 2007 class, but I like it’s potential. Oden and Durant don’t need any explanation. I think Horford can eventually develop into a Carlos Boozer type player, maybe with less points but more rebounds. Thaddeus Young, who probably would’ve been a high lottery pick out of high school, and Al Thornton have crazy potential, imo. And i’m high on Mike Conley Jr.

As for Mayo, ever since he was 14, he was touted as the best player in his class. During senior year, though, players like Beasley, Rose, Gordon and even Love started catching up to him, even hurdling him in some lists. But then again, I think most of those rankings evaluated players based on how they’d project in college, not the NBA.

The name Keith Brumbaugh caught my attention. Never heard of him before, so I did a little research.

Coming out of high school, he was a top-15 recruit in a class that included Monta Ellis, Gerald Green, Josh McRoberts, Tyler Hansbrough, Mario Chalmers, Brandon Rush and Greg Paulus. Some mock drafts projected him as a lottery pick, but after entertaining the thought, he ultimately decided to attend college.

He signed to play for Oklahoma St., but after a shoplifting incident at a local WalMart and an NCAA investigation of his ACT score, he transferred to HCC before playing a single D-1 game.